After getting to Nepal we quickly settled into a remembrance of western influence. In the main tourist hubs of Nepal you can find steak sizzlers, snickers bars and soda. It's like being around the comforts of home with the claustrophobia of Asia. To be honest we all preferred the authenticity of India. Though raw and savage at times at least it didn't posses the ills of the western world and the over consumption and waste of most tourist. We toured the classics of Nepal, and the rivers finally began to show retreat from the over abundance of water from the biggest monsoon season in 70 years. It was time to head back towards the western boarder of India and have a crack at the Humla Karnali.
Per usual, things did not progress as quickly as we had hoped. Cooper and I scoured the various booking agents and airline offices searching for a cargo flight headed to Simikot. Located high in the northern reaches of western Nepal close to the Tibetan border, Simikiot is the provincial capital of the Humla Region. We passed the time fine tuning our packing, securing the last of our food supplies, and preparing ourselves for the longest and most committing river any of us had ever paddled. 
With tickets purchased and a clear weather forecast we loaded our boats into a truck and took them to the airport the afternoon before we flew for a weigh in. We were allowed 20 kilos each and every Kilo over would cost us two dollars. We were looking at 50-60 kilos a person and were thankful of the allowance of one camera bag each fully loaded with 14 kilos of food to save money.
Mission time was upon us the boys loading up.
Awaking at 4:30 AM we hopped in a shared auto rickshaw stoked to be leaving the smog of "the Gange". We weighed in the last of our baggage and boarded our very own German made Dornier Fairchild 212 turbo prop twin engine airplane. They loaded 3 of the kayaks and 4 of us then filled the rest of the plane with bags of rice. Finally once Will was on board they filled in the empty spaces with the last of our kayaks.
Will scouts the Humla Karnali from 3000 feet above.
See that little dirt patch in the middle of the frame that is the Simikot Airport
Once on the ground we rearranged our gear and boats and shoulder them heading towards the steep 1000 meter vertical descent to the Humla River. Getting an early flight and reaching Simikot by 7 am we were hoping to cover some solid ground on our first day. In order to save our backs and knees we opted to employ some local help to carry our heavy kayaks in the 100 to 110 pound range.
After some tough negotiations we found a fit team eager to aid us in our mission.
Clear glacial water near the put in (photo Will Stubbelfield)
We set off around 11 AM stoked to be at the river so early. We were optimistic of reaching our goal of Manma our planned resupply stop in 6 days. On the water we paddled several kilometers of read and run pushy class III. A tributary quickly doubled the flow and we were soon dealing with around 800 Cubic feet per second of water flowing through the valley. Before long a uncontrollable wave of nausea took control of my body. I tried to push on but lost control in the middle of some class III rapids.
JJ laid out between fits of vomiting (photo Isaac Thomson)
We regrouped for a few minutes and discussed pushing on but the toils of the sub continent waged war on my body and I laid hunched over purging my body of its evils for the rest of the day battling fever, sweating, vomiting, and diarrhea. The following morning I awoke early and regained control of my body. I was able to put down a bit of oats and we loaded up hopping to regain lost time and cover some distance on the the river. Already on the first day we were well behind our target.
Isaac dropping into the first gorge (photo Will Stubbelfield)
We repacked our overweight and over stuffed kayaks and set off knowing that we had two large portages ahead of us. On the water we bounced our way down the rapids boat scouting and bombing through a fun 6 kilometers of stress free white water. We finally reached our first large rapid and Will and I scouted from opposite banks. A large tongue feeding into a powerful seem closely followed by another large rapid. The power of the Humla finally presented itself.
Cooper Charging through a large swirly boxed in rapid. If you run this you just went to far. (photo Will Stubelfield)
Cooper climbing up the steep bank we just hauled the kayaks up (photo Will Stubblefield)
Just below here is a horrible rapid that we had to portage. A bit to over committed we had to rope our boats up the steep cliff face taking over two hours in total to portage what should have been 20 minutes.
After the first long portage there are several kilometers of good fun kayaking a short portage a great lunch and then the realization that once again we pushed to far and had entered deep into another long portage. This time it took us 3 1/2 rope lengths to pull our boats out of the gorge. The second portage took the better half of a day to walk around the 1.5 kilometer long unrunable first canyon. (photo Will Stubblefield)
Cooper and I broken after the second long portage (photo Will Stubblefield)
The third day we were convinced not to make the same mistake three times in a row. We had hoped to be at the confluence of the Lochi Karnali, and were a long way off pace. We saw a pinch, predicted a portage, and spent the extra time scouting and avoided another epic, walking around this boulder choked canyon.
Cooper running the lunch rapid day 3.
Will ducking under a large old growth strainer covering the large majority of the river.
Day 3 presented one of the hardest and most consistent stretches of hard class IV and V in the entire 240 miles of the Karnali. The rapids were stacked and kept coming at us all day.
Toby hoping all that extra weight will keep his bow down through a stout gorge rapid mid way through day 3. The rapids continued with a solid 8 k's of hard class IV and V rapids. It eventually relented and eased to class IV read and run. We finally found a good pace and began to cover solid ground late into the third day. We bounced our way through boulder gardens stacked with crashing waves and powerful holes. We passed through a small town and the villagers lined the banks to bear witness to our passing. Some kids even showed their enthusiasm by hurling large chunks of wood and rocks at us as we paddled by.
Finally as the last rays of light transformed into darkness we reached the Lochi Khola. In 3 days we covered 40 kilometers. We had grossly underestimated the difficulty of the river. We began to ration our supplies as it seemed reaching Manma in 6 days was a pipe dream. The Humla had taken its toll and day 4 we were to enter the formidable third canyon one of the hardest sections of river on the Humla.
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